page_title: Christian Connection
section_title: Predecessor groups
hierarchical_section_title: Christian Connection / Predecessor groups
caption_attribution_description: English: James O'Kelly (1735-1826)
context_page_description: The Christian Connection was a Christian movement in the United States of America that developed in several places during the late 18th and early 19th centuries; it was made up of secessions from several different religious denominations. It was influenced by settling the frontier as well as the formation of the new United States and its separation from Great Britain. The Christian Connection claimed to have no creed, instead professing to rely strictly on the Bible.
  In practice, members tended to cluster around various shared theological concepts, such as an Arminian theological anthropology, a rejection of the Calvinist doctrine of election, and an autonomous form of church government. The Connexion's periodical, the Herald of Gospel Liberty, was among the first religious journals published in the United States.
context_section_description: James O'Kelly was an early advocate of seeking unity through a return to New Testament Christianity. In 1792, dissatisfied with the role of bishops in the Methodist Episcopal Church, he separated from that body. O'Kelly's movement, centering in Virginia and North Carolina, was originally called the Republican Methodist Church. In 1794 they adopted the name Christian Church.
  During the same period, Elias Smith of Vermont and Abner Jones of New Hampshire led a movement espousing views similar to those of O’Kelly. They believed that members could, by looking to scripture alone, simply be Christians without being bound to human traditions and the denominations that had been brought over from Europe.  Working independently at first, Jones and Smith joined together in their efforts and began exclusively using the name Christian.
  In 1801, the Cane Ridge Revival led by Barton W. Stone in Kentucky would plant the seed for a movement in Kentucky and the Ohio River valley to disassociate from denominationalism. Stone and five other ministers published The Last Will and Testament of the Springfield Presbytery in 1804, giving up denominational ties to the Presbyterian Church and preferring to be known simply as Christians. Stone was influenced by his earlier involvement with O'Kelly and knew of the Republican Methodist practice of simply using the name Christian.
  Ideologically, the New England movement displayed an extreme form of republicanism. Convinced that the American Revolution demanded a thorough and utter break with European modes of operation, members tended to demand radical reform of politics, the legal system, medicine and religion. Elias Smith's career particularly emphasized medical and spiritual reform. All visible forms of church government were to be rejected, he argued, because they were inherently “British”. The movement's nativist approach to theology and church polity imparted a unique flavor to the movement, placing them distinctly on the fringe of early nineteenth-century North American spirituality.
caption: James O'Kelly
exif: {}